Table 1.
Associations between maturational status and injury for all eligible studies
| Paper | Sport | Maturity status | Criteria | Findings |
| Bult et al 16 | Soccer | EA PHV (MO) | Pre-PHV 1 (>12 months pre-PHV) Pre-PHV 2 (6–12 months pre-PHV) Pre-PHV 3 (<6 months pre-PHV) Post-PHV 4 (<3 months post-PHV) Post-PHV 5 (3–6 months post-PHV) Post-PHV 6 (>6 months post PHV) |
↑ injury incidence and burden in post-PHV 4+5 ↓ injury incidence burden in pre-PHV 1 ↓ injury burden in pre-PHV 2 |
| Fawcett et al 32 | Gymnastics | Perceived maturational status | NA | ↑ risk for injury and lower back pain circa-PHV especially, when combined with excessive training load |
| Hall et al (2022) | Soccer | EA PHV (MO) | Pre-PHV (<−1.0) Circa-PHV (−0.5 to 0.5) Post-PHV (>1.0) |
↓ incidence of overall, non-contact, soft-tissue, muscle, non-contact soft tissue and thigh injuries in pre-PHV vs post-PHV ↓ incidence of non-contact, soft-tissue, muscle and thigh injuries in circa-PHV vs post-PHV ↑ incidence of growth-related injuries in pre-PHV and circa-PHV vs post-PHV ↑ prevalence of overall and non-contact soft-tissue in post-PHV vs pre-PHV ↑ prevalence of non-contact, soft-tissue, muscle, thigh injuries in post-PHV vs pre-PHV and circa-PHV ↓ prevalence of growth-related injuries in post-PHV vs pre-PHV and circa-PHV ↑ injury burden in players recording at least one soft-tissue injury in post-PHV vs pre-PHV |
| Horobeanu et al 18 | Squash | EA PHV (MO) | Pre-PHV (<−1.0) Circa-PHV (−1.0 to 1.0) Post-PHV (>1.0) |
No statistically significant difference in the proportion of osteochondrosis growth related injuries occurred circa-PHV (56%) vs pre-PHV (21%) and post-PHV (23%) |
| Johnson et al 19 | Soccer | %PAH (KR) | NA | Non-linear association (inv.-U) between maturity status and incidence and burden for non-contact injuries with peaks at 92%–95% PAH, respectively |
| Johnson et al 20 | Soccer | %PAH (KR) | Pre-PHV (<88% PAH) Circa-PHV (88%–95% PAH) Post-PHV (>95% PAH) |
↑ incidence and burden of non-contact injuries in circa-PHV vs pre-PHV |
| Monaco et al 21 | Handball | Physician assessed testicular volume | Immature—4–14 cm testicular volume Mature—≥15 cm testicular volume |
↑ incidence of apophysitis in immature vs mature |
| Monasterio et al 8 | Soccer | %AAH | Pre-PHV <88% AAH Circa-PHV 88–96% AAH Post-PHV >96% AAH |
↑ prevalence of growth-related injuries circa-PHV vs pre-PHV and post-PHV Prevalence of growth-related injuries followed a distal-to-proximal gradient consistent with asynchronous and sequential growth of human skeleton. ↑ prevalence of muscle, groin pain, knee joint/ligament, ankle joint/ligament in post-PHV vs pre-PHV and circa-PHV |
| Monasterio et al 22 | Soccer | EA PHV (SITAR) | Pre-PHV (>6 months before PHV) Circa-PHV (±6 months from PHV) Post-PHV (>6 months after PHV until growth velocity was <1 cm/year) |
↑ burden of overall, growth-related, AIIS osteochondrosis, muscle, hamstring injuries in circa-PHV vs pre-PHV ↑ burden of overall, muscle, hamstring, quadricep, joint/ligament, knee, meniscal ankle, lateral sprain ↓ burden Sever’s, Osgood-Schlatter’s in post-PHV vs pre-PHV ↑ burden of Sever’s, Osgood-Schlatter’s, AIIS osteochondrosis ↓ burden of muscle, knee, meniscal ankle, lateral sprain in circa-PHV vs post-PHV |
| Monasterio et al23 | Soccer | EA PHV (SITAR) | Circa-PHV (±6 months from PHV) Post-PHV (>6 months from PHV and until growth velocities were <1 cm/year) |
↑ burden of overall injuries players that experience fast vs average or slow growth in stature circa-PHV, but not post-PHV ↑ burden of growth-related injuries for players experiences fast vs slow growth in stature circa-PHV but not post-PHV |
| Patel et al 24 | Trampolining gymnastics | %PAH (KR) | NA | Non-linear association (inv. U) between maturity status and injury probability with peak at 90% PAH |
| Patel et al 33 | Gymnastics | Perceived maturational status | NA | ↑ incidence growth-related, bone, lower extremity, back injuries and stress fractures of the back/wrist circa-PHV |
| Rinaldo et al25 | Soccer | EA PHV (MO) | Decimal age (DA)-EA PHV >−1
DA-EA PHV ≤−3 years |
↑ probability of injury with ↑ DA-EA PHV ↑ frequency of injury in athletes >−1 DA-EA PHV |
| Read et al26 | Soccer | EA PHV (MO) | NA | ↑ probability of lower-limb injuries in U13–14 players more years (−0.7 vs −0.4) from PHV |
| Rudavsky et al 31 | Dance—Ballet | EA PHV (MO) | Pre-PHV (>0 years to PHV) Post-PHV (>0 years from PHV) |
No difference in years to or from PHV in dancers did or did not develop proximal patellar tendon pathology |
| Steidl-Muller27 et al | Alpine skiing | EA PHV (MO) | NA | ↑ probability of injury (traumatic and overuse) with greater years to EA PHV |
| Van der Sluis et al28 | Soccer | EA PHV (MO) | Pre-PHV (>6 months to PHV) PHV (<6 months and <6 months from PHV) Post-PHV (>6 months from PHV) |
↑ incidence of traumatic injuries in circa-PHV and post-PHV vs pre-PHV |
| Van der Sluis et al 29 | Soccer | EA PHV (MO) | Pre-PHV (>6 months to PHV) PHV (<6 months and <6 months from PHV) Post-PHV (>6 months from PHV) |
↑ incidence of traumatic injuries from pre-PHV to post-PHV then ↓ from PHV to post-PHV in earlier and later maturing players ↑ incidence of overuse injuries from pre-PHV to post-PHV then ↑ from PHV to post-PHV in earlier, but not later, maturing players |
| Wik et al 34 | Track and Field | SA (Fels) | NA | ↓ incidence of growth plate injuries with ↑ skeletal age and %PAH |
%AAH, percentage of attained adult height; EA PHV, estimated age at peak height velocity; KR, Khamis-Roche method; MO, maturity offset; %PAH, percentage of predicted adult height; SA, skeletal age; SITAR, super-imposition by translation and rotation.